The school system has insurance coverage in more than a dozen areas, including property, workers compensation, liability and flood. Many of the policies were written by Gaynell J. Martin Insurance, the board's long-time agent, whose president has been a regular contributor to most School Board members' campaigns.

But when another firm, McGriff Seibels and Williams of Louisiana, came forward early this year saying it could provide comparable service on property insurance for hundreds of thousands of dollars less, Martin reduced its price by more than $700,000. The board accepted Martin's lower proposal, crediting McGriff Seibels with helping save the school system considerable money.

A few weeks later, the board awarded McGriff Seibels the liability contract, saving the system another additional $800,000 over Martin's previous price.

The issue convinced board member Larry Dale, who chairs the board's insurance committee, of the need for an independent adviser to help the board decide how to buy insurance coverage in the future.

"What I'm trying to do is take it out of the realm of the elected folks and turn it over to someone who can oversee it and be totally fair," Dale said. "It's not our money; it's the citizen's money, and we have a fiduciary responsibility to use it wisely."

Campaign finance records through Dec. 31, 2010 show no contributions from McGriff Seibel to Jefferson School Board members.

The Martin agency's president, Michael Martin, has contributed to the campaigns of all of the board's nine members except Dale and Pat Tovrea, according to campaign finance reports. Some board members said the company has provided high-quality service for many years and deserves to be retained.

Dale said he doesn't doubt that the Martin agency has provided good service. But with the school system's budget woes, he said, the board owes it to the public to open the business to competition and have an outside adviser help make financially sound decisions.

"All I want do is take it out of our hands," he said. "Just having the eyes of experts on this is something that I think will be very valuable."